Critical eye + Tennis | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/series/criticaleye+sport/tennis
Indexen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2015Tue, 31 Mar 2015 21:10:53 GMT2015-03-31T21:10:53Zen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2015The Guardianhttp://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.pnghttp://www.theguardian.com
Book review roundup: The Outsider, Perfect and Bitter Experience Has Taught Mehttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/28/critical-eye-books-review-roundup
What the critics thought of The Outsider by Jimmy Connors, Perfect by Rachel Joyce and Bitter Experience Has Taught Me by Nicholas Lezard<p>&quot;Just as Connors was renowned for having a short fuse on court, so he doesn't hold back in his autobiography. Never before have I read a book frothing with so much fury.&quot; <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-2345161/Still-angry-years-THE-OUTSIDER-BY-JIMMY-CONNORS.html" title=""><strong>John Preston</strong> in the Daily Mail</a> was taken aback by Jimmy Connors's autobiography, <em>The Outsider</em>. &quot;Here's a man who seems to&nbsp;have fallen out with practically everyone he ever met … however unlikable Connors may be, he has one&nbsp;big attribute as a writer: he's eye-poppingly indiscreet. As a result, <em>The Outsider</em> makes most sports autobiographies feel like very tepid affairs in comparison.&quot; Given this, it's quite difficult to see how <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/review-the-outsider--my-autobiography-by-jimmy-connors-8640758.html" title=""><strong>Julian Hall</strong> in the Independent</a> could call the book &quot;a conversational and occasionally coy memoir&quot;. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/books/review/the-outsider-a-memoir-by-jimmy-connors.html?_r=0" title=""><strong>Peter Lattman</strong> in the New York Times</a> noted that Connors was &quot;perhaps the most important tennis player of the second half of the 20th century. A brash, hyperintense kid from the blue-collar East St Louis, Ill, area&quot;, he &quot;led the charge in wresting the sport from its genteel, country club&nbsp;past&quot;. But he &quot;was also kind of a jerk, and there is little in <em>The Outsider</em> to dispel his reputation as a narcissistic, selfish loner&quot;. Perhaps most important, his &quot;recountings of epic rivalries with Bj&ouml;rn Borg and McEnroe shed few new insights&quot;.</p><p>&quot;Readers of contemporary British fiction will be forgiven for emitting a weary sigh when they open a new book&nbsp;and find themselves in yet another 1970s housing estate seen through the eyes of a whimsical, outsider kid. The orange squash, the Wimpys, the feather-cut mums. And so&nbsp;begins <em>Perfect</em>, Rachel Joyce's follow-up to her bestselling debut, <em>The&nbsp;Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry</em>.&quot; <strong>Melissa Katsoulis</strong> in the Times found the novel hard going at first: <em>Perfect</em> … has no laughs and only fleeting glimpses of nourishing human connectedness … But persevere and plough on … the reward is a redemptive ending of such tenderness that after 300-odd pages of darkness you will&nbsp;end up grinning dippily and recommending this wild, searching book to everyone you know.&quot; <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10132028/Perfect-by-Rachel-Joyce-review.html" title=""><strong>Elena Seymenliyska</strong> gave the book four out of five stars in the Telegraph</a>, arguing: &quot;Joyce has been criticised for being sentimental; if only more novels were bad enough to move us like this one.&quot;</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/28/critical-eye-books-review-roundup">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureAutobiography and memoirAlan SugarTennisFictionFri, 28 Jun 2013 17:00:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/28/critical-eye-books-review-roundupJim Hollander/Reuters/Corbis'Eye-poppingly indicreet' … Jimmy Connors in 1989, holding his racquet in his mouth. Photograph: Jim Hollander/Reuters/CorbisJim Hollander/Reuters/Corbis'Eye-poppingly indicreet' … Jimmy Connors in 1989, holding his racquet in his mouth. Photograph: Jim Hollander/Reuters/CorbisGuardian Staff2013-06-28T17:00:01Z